Essenes
Ancient desert monastics
The Essenes were a Jewish sect active from the second century BCE to the first century CE, known for their ascetic communal living, ritual purity, and apocalyptic beliefs.
They likely produced the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran.
Unlike the Pharisees and Sadducees, they withdrew from mainstream Jewish society: The Essenes lived in isolated desert communities.
Abstaining from intimate relations
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
- purificationRemoval of contaminants
- self-denialRestraining one's own desires
austerity · simplicity · ritual bathing · white garments · communal meals · temperance · renunciation · discipline
Ancient manuscripts from Judean caves
- PhariseesSecond Temple legal interpreters
- SadduceesPriestly Jewish faction
- Second TempleRebuilt Jerusalem sanctuary
- JudeaAncient Palestinian territory
Pliny the Elder · Sanhedrin · Herod the Great · sectarianism · Antiquities · Hellenistic · apocalypticism · messianism
Ancient manuscripts from Judean caves
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- parchmentTreated hide for manuscripts
- scriptoriumMonastery manuscript workshop
- preservationMaintaining something's condition
Shared domestic arrangement
- brotherhoodKinship among men
- fellowshipMutual goodwill among companions
- common propertyResource owned by all
- collectiveJointly organized group
initiation · novitiate · hierarchy · elders · covenant · oath · communal property · mutual aid
celibacy
Abstaining from intimate relations
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
- purificationRemoval of contaminants
self-denial · austerity · simplicity · ritual bathing · white garments · communal meals · temperance · renunciation · discipline · frugality
Dead Sea Scrolls
Ancient manuscripts from Judean caves
- PhariseesSecond Temple legal interpreters
- SadduceesPriestly Jewish faction
- Second TempleRebuilt Jerusalem sanctuary
Pliny the Elder · Judea · Sanhedrin · Herod the Great · sectarianism · Antiquities · Hellenistic · apocalypticism · messianism · pseudepigrapha
Dead Sea Scrolls
Ancient manuscripts from Judean caves
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- parchmentTreated hide for manuscripts
- scriptoriumMonastery manuscript workshop
preservation · biblical texts · Aramaic · fragment · paleography
communal living
Shared domestic arrangement
- brotherhoodKinship among men
- fellowshipMutual goodwill among companions
- common propertyResource owned by all
collective · initiation · novitiate · hierarchy · elders · covenant · oath · communal property · mutual aid · order
- Ancient IsraelIsraelites, Jerusalem, Israel, twelve tribes, Judea
- Ancient JudeaSecond Temple, Judea, Jerusalem, Masada, Herod the Great
- Communescommunes, communal living, kibbutz, hippie commune, utopian communities
- HebrewsAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David
- Jewish MovementsOrthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Hasidism, Reform Jews
- Roman JudeaJudea, Masada, Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Second Temple